Comments

I would love to see more awareness of food allergies (maybe a section of substitutions for various foods) and also more ideas for breakfast (besides the ubiquitous smoothie). Great idea! Good luck! Can’t wait to buy it!

I second Mon46’s request for low fat recipes. I really want to see more recipes that use minimal or no fat, including nuts, seeds, avocados, and oil.

Raw foodists in general seem to know that although we need healthy fats, they should be a minimal part of our diet. However, most recipes, especially gourmet ones, are loaded with fats. It really upsets me because I don’t think it is healthy. Although I can’t go so far as to embrace the 80-10-10 approach, (for me, there is too much fruit) I do agree with the concept of limiting fats. (For me, the more fruit I eat, the more sugar I crave.) I don’t understand how we can be healthy and have large amounts of fat. So many raw foodists claim that gourmet recipes should not be eaten on a frequent basis, but it seems that the focus is on gourmet high fat recipes.

When I go to any website, especially this one (since I spend so much of my time on this one!) while I am reviewing recipes, as soon as I see the first fat ingredient, unless it is a tablespoon, I go on to the next recipe. I would love to see people use a lowfat category on this site. Although I was told that you can create categories, I can’t figure out how to do so. I would love to be able to filter out things with various food groups such as fats, cacao, and fruit.

So, after much explanation, I urge you to provide us with simple, quick, easy, and LOWFAT recipes. It would be so different from all the others.

Yes, I agree with the coconut Bluedolfin, especially young coconut. It is not organic and is fumigated. Although I love them, I do not want to subject my body to the impurities.

I would like to see low salt recipes without the use of Nama Shoyu, nutritional yeast, and maple syrup. As a matter of fact, I would like to see recipes that don’t include the foods that are questionable as raw. Maybe you can go to the list promoted on this site. I think it is called the dead food list? Let’s promote healthy diets, with healthy ingredients.

This is great, keep your wishes coming. I always focus on low fat recipes so that is good. I rarely use nuts and substitute with seeds which are lower in fat and some sprouted grain. I try to make food that is about 80% fruit and vegetable. I don’t use some of the dodgy raw foods except a little unpasteurised miso and cacao.

Hi Joyce, here in Scotland I rarely come across young coconut. I have tasted it and don’t like it so it won’t be popping up in any of my recipes. I like to make food with ingredients that most people can access anywhere in the world.

I am new to raw and the time and pre-planning is proving to be a scheduling problem. I would like to see less legumes and seeds that need to soaked and sprouted. I don’t always have time to start a meal three days in advance. I agree with the quick after work meals to put together and I also have found the high fat foods with all the seeds are the majority of the foods I can find recipes for. They certainly have their place and I know we need the fat and I love the fat in foods but I want more low fat fast (no germinating/sprouting) for the end of a busy day.

I’d like to see low-fat recipes, without the heavy emphasis on nuts, seeds and oils.

Also, advise on the nutrients in fruits and vegetable, like a vitamin chart, showing minerals and vitamins. That makes it much, much easier to learn to shop for appropriate foods.

A list of common substitutions for foods that people might not be able to eat, like buckwheat sprouts, celery, etc. Also substitutions for liquid sweetners AND substitutions for things like almond milk.

Some talk on affordable healthy food shopping would be fantastic, since most of the books I’ve looked had have horrendously high costs in the food.

Same goes for equipment. What to use(and how to use it!) if you can’t afford a food processor, for example.

How about substiutions? In addition to fabulous recipes, I would love to see other things that would work, in addition to comments regarding MUSTS (ie within a given recipe, will any nuts do or just Brazil nuts?)

Ok, here is a good idea that just popped into my head. How about a book of recipes that are organized by ingredient with an index of nutrition info for the different foods? Ok, for example, I look in my fridge and see a big cabbage… and think hmmmm what can I do with that? Then page to cabbage in the book and find lots of cabbagey recipes? Or… I have a serious craving for something citrus… and look up orange to find info on different ways to use that fruit in un-cooking and lots of delicious recipes. I think that would be a fun book to have! Good luck with your book! :-)

love the idea of Northern Lights to have a book with an index of different foods. I’m sure I’d use a book like that very often. Ditto for the low fat and easily prepared recipes too.
Pictures are important for me. I like to be able to see the finished product as well as some of the trickier preparation details.

I’d like a book with a section for sweet treats with low glycemic fruits. There’s too much recipes with dates, raisins and nuts out there. BTW, I love your recipes and I can’t wait for your book Sweatpea!

Northern lights, that is a good idea, why don’t you do a book like that?

Thank you all for your suggestions, I’ll be doing quite a few follow-up books, possibly focussing on specific principles. I’ve completed the recipe section now and will be doing the writing part over the next few weeks.

It would be helpful if the recipe included the total time start to finish as well as active vs. inactive time. And then start the recipe in order of what needs to be done first. I know this seems like a no brainer, but I have several “gourmet” raw uncookbooks and none of them have this information so it make preparation very difficult. I can’t wait to see a cookbook with all of these ideas.

wow, it’s great to see that so many ppl feel exacting the same way i do! i thought i was the only one. some of these things were already mentioned, but this is my dream raw recipe book. i plan on writing my own actually.

no young coconuts or durians because they are all fumigated and irradiated and i doubt they are raw because of that. if you actually have access to fresh raw tropical coconut or durian, why ruin it w/ a recipe? they are so delicious, i eat them plain, but i don’t eat them at all cuz i can only find them at asian markets where they are full of pesticides and radiation

and if a book says it’s vegan, it needs to be vegan, not BEEgan! honey and bee pollen are NOT vegan

one of my biggest issues is that the recipes are mostly nuts and seeds. a HEALTHY raw diet needs mostly veggies and fruit. i usually eat fruit plain so as for recipes, it’d be mostly veggies and the nonsweet fruit veggies.

it’d follow proper food combining. olives, avo, pine nuts, and coconut oil all in the same recipe is just asking for a stomach ache!

don’t just list recipes like a zombie or something in an encyclopedia. be enthusiatic about the book. talk about each recipe. say how you like to eat it, if it’s one of your favourites, how much your friends liked it the 1st time they had it, blah blah blah. tell a story and give me a reason why i want to make this recipe. and show pictures! it has to look good, and w/ the description you give, it has to sound good, ,too. i can’t tell by just the ingredients if it’s somethin’ i wanna make

lots of recipes that only involve chopping and a peeler or madalin. it is really annoying to have to wash a blender or food processor for every meal. recipes w/ as little equipment neccessary as possible. no dehydrator stuff cuz we want to be hydrated, not dehydrated. we are mostly water afterall.

yah, i could go on and on and on! i’m so picky and that’s why i’m gonna write my own recipe book. it’d prob have like 20 recipes or less because i believe in quality not quantity. all the recipe books i’ve gotten had way too many recipes and most of them just looked like the person was trying to fill pages. they didn’t look like good recipes at all.

I agree with a lot of what has already been said, but here are my personal thoughts:

I’m a very visual person, so I hate cook books without pictures (photos, not drawings) and end up never making something from them, just because it doesn’t “tempt me” to try it. So, a looot of colourful pics are a must.

Then I totally agree with rawveganlove about the book being really vegan.
If it features (as few as possible) “pseudo-raw” ingredients (nori etc), it should at least mention a truly raw version. And not too many expensive-online-order-only special substances, please :D

I also second the “keep it simple/fast” (maybe giving an estimated-time-needed). It would be great to have some (really creative though. By simple I don’t mean “cut up some veggies and make a salad-style” recipes, therefore I don’t need a book) everyday recipes that don’t need hours of preparation (except sprouting maybe, which I don’t count as “working hours”) and expensive equipment (eg. NOOOO dehydrator recipes!!!).
Although, it would be nice to have a little extra chapter for “impress your guests” gourmet style recipes, just for the “special occasions”.

Furthermore, I’m, too, somebody preferring “light”, not too “mixed” meals. Like all those recipes in the internet consisting of nuts, grains, seeds, oil, coconut etc all in one dish!! I prefer veggies and just a few “heavy” ingredients.

Plus, as an introduction an explanation of the measurement used in the book. I always have problems with “cups” (American? UK? Spinach blended, in pieces? A cup of carrots sliced? Rather volume or weight?....) etc, so this would really help and make life easier :)

Ah, one more thing:
I’d like to have a RECIPE book. So no big introduction about the benefits of raw food etc etc, I think there are enough books on that already, just using all the precious pages for recipes and pictures :)

Wow, quite some demands…. :) Well, this would be my IDEAL recipe book, no idea if it will ever exist, tee hee…

Oh, and let us know, when your book is ready, I think it would be the very first raw recipe book I buy :)

Have fun writing the book, and good luck! I’m sure it’s gonna be a bestseller, at least amongst goneraw users :)

I second low-fat, and no refined foods like salt or agave—these are not whole foods! I do include fat in my diet, but you only need a small amount for a third of your calories to come from fat, and we have plenty of recipes with far more!

Besides simple, quick, low-to-no equipment recipes that use a minimum amount of seeds, nuts, oil, and coconut, I’d like recipes that use a minimum amount of sugary stuff such as agave, high sugar fruits such as mangos, and innovative use of nice alkalizing veggies like cucumbers, avocados, tomatoes, celery, etc.

I’m always looking for ways to make these staples taste fresh and new, combined in ways I wouldn’t have thought of myself.

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